《How to Write Stories People Will Love》3. Find Inspiration
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If you're ever stumped for ideas on what to write, there are two things I recommend.
A story that I recently finished was inspired by a random thought I had while walking the dogs. They were sniffing intently at a bush, and I thought to myself, "I wonder what it's like to smell things as well as they do?" My brain then followed that rabbit down a hole and a story began forming. (Incidentally, this story is now on Wattpad! Look for My Mother Runs With Wolves on my profile. Website users can click on the External Link.)
Encourage your brain to think random thoughts. In any direction.
What would it be like to live on the moon? How high could you jump?
Do alligators really survive in the sewer? What do they live on?
How much time did Richard Adams spend staring at rabbits when he wrote Watership Down? Did his friends think he was crazy?
If teleporters ever get invented, I wonder if it'll get sabotaged by the airline and automobile industries?
Encouraging your mind to wander to pointless places sometimes sparks an idea for a story. My brain is always doing this on its own (I occasionally document these random thoughts in "My Hamster Wheel Brain" blog) and I'm often accused of spacing out. Some of these random thoughts give me ideas, and I'll scribble these ideas into a file for later reference.
Wandering thoughts usually aren't enough to come up with a story plot. The way you flesh out an idea is by asking what ifs. I'll take my previous wandering examples and apply what ifs to them...
What if they started colonizing the moon, and I volunteered? Would any of my friends and family go with me? What if I was in a relationship? What would happen to that?
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What if these sewer alligators were actually robots created by a corporation to build something secret underground?
What if Richard Adams made his story about cats instead of rabbits? What might have changed?
What if teleporters do get invented, but big-money lobbies get laws to be passed that make them illegal? What if a small group of scientists keeps working on one anyway, what would they do with it? Would a black market teleportation industry spring up?
Now these wandering thoughts have more meat on them, more potential to turn into stories.
If your brain doesn't wander like mine does, there are other ways. The What If Game can be powerful. Take an existing fairy tale. Then what-if the heck out of it. Here's an example: Peter Pan.
What if Peter Pan was actually a girl? She could be Petra Pan. With Lost Girls instead of Lost Boys.
What if this was set in space? Maybe Peter Pan used a jet pack instead of fairy dust. Would Tinkerbell be an alien?
What if Captain Hook was Peter's father?
What if Peter Pan was like Mad Max, and the Lost Boys ran Thunderdome?
What if Peter somehow got old? (This has already been done, in that Robin Williams movie, Hook.)
What if Tinkerbell was big and ugly like a troll, instead of tiny, fluttery and cute?
As you can see, there are countless directions you can go in! Some of them may have been done already, but there are so many possibilities, that chances are good you'll find something original.
Maintain a file or notebook for all your ideas. No matter how dumb or tiny the idea might seem, write it down. You don't have to flesh it out. Just record what you have. Twice now, I've thought of nothing but a title. No clue what the plot was, or who the characters might be. Just a story title I thought was cool. I wrote them down and set it aside for several months.
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Then later, as I recorded other ideas, I would peruse my previous ideas just for fun. Often these previous ideas will stir something in my creative space, and something will take root. Months later, I now have a complete short story, called "Sell Fish", and an in-progress novel from those two disembodied story titles I once wrote down.
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The Apple Grotto Nymph
A merchant stumbles on a grotto when he is lost and eats his last apple. He plants the seeds the next day to provide food for future lost travelers. And so, the nymph Theanore is born. She would grow from a tiny seed to a splendid apple tree. She would meet many friends. She will try her hand at being a merchant like her father. And she will get to know her lifetime companion, the merman Marinus. But as every farmer can tell you, apple trees live only for about 150 years and so, with her tree dried up so will Theanore die. But before that, she will live. A sort of a dungeon core story with a twist. Also posted on AO3 and Scribble Hub.
8 159 - In Serial168 Chapters
A Dark God In An Otherwise Godless Multiverse
Eons ago a devastating and apocalyptic battle took place that rocked every dark and loathsome corner of the multiverse. In the aftermath of the battle, deities, demon-lords, old ones, arch-devils, angel kings and archon queens, not to mention other cosmically powerful entities were totally obliterated. Despite this history-changing occurrence, life found a way and life went on in a godless multiverse for an unimaginable length of time. And in time, even the mightiest and most popular gods were nearly forgotten. But one day, in a universe unlike our own, an altogether fantastic and magical universe, a deity is born. A new deity. An evil deity. Join the aforementioned dark deity as he embarks on a quest to gain power, worshippers, and dark glory. This story features a deity as its protagonist, but it's a deity who starts off alone in a dark and harsh multiverse. He needs worshippers to grow in power and has to earn his victories intelligently. He seeks to gain worshippers, discover the truth behind his genesis, and become the deity he is meant to be. He is a villainous protagonist who will hurt others, and he's unafraid to kill and destroy what he can't control. This is his story. Please note: this story will contain evil beings doing evil things. Violence, gore, profanity, and sexual content will all be featured throughout this story.
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The Royal Mage
Raised in a small village at the end of the trail by a single mother. Rime only ever wanted for one thing and that was to be able to attend the Royal Academy to study to become a herbalist, so he would be able to take care of his ailing mother and mischiveous little sister. But in a twist of fate he draws the attention of the Arch Mage and then accidentally becomes the best friend of the young Empress and gets pulled into a game of Royal Revolt, now he must fight to protect what remains of the future of his kingdom while trying to keep both himself and little sister alive. ^^^ Meh, I don't know if that's good but you be the judge.
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A Nameless protaonist that can see the greatest sins of people, a beautiful girl whos also Satan's daughter, Angels, Demons, Sex, Violince, What more could you ask out of a Novel?
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Through Mist, Veil, and Summer
Anna Lawrence is a quiet girl who'd rather sit and write poetry than bustle about with her peers. After an incident resulting in a panic attack and a trip to the hospital, Anna's foster mother sends her to stay with her aunt and uncle for the summer. Upon arriving in the small mountain town of Glenwood, Anna finds herself caught in the machinations of another world on the other side of the fog: warring witches, animal-headed skypirates, and the boldest, bravest, most interesting girl Anna has ever met. THROUGH MIST, VEIL, AND SUMMER is my homage to Studio Ghibli films. It's a fantasy romance with a dash of adventure and a sprinkling of self-contemplation. It's a story that moves a little slower, a little quieter. It is my fourth novel, written between October 1, 2017 and January 6, 2019.
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Deviant's Masquerade: Get Ink'd (A Toon Villain Quest/RPG)
Joshua Durand has always lived in someone else’s shadow, a side character in someone else’s show.His brother was the real hero of the tale, or he was until his ‘friends’ stabbed him in the back.Now though, he’s got a chance to step into the spotlight, as long as he’s willing to make a deal with the devil.He doesn’t know if this is the right decision or the wrong one, but what he does know is “It’s showtime!” --- This is forum quest story taking place in the same city/setting as my other stories: The Huntsman's Quest and Hacking Reality stories meaning that while a majority of the plot is made up by me, the major choices as well as what each chapter is about are usually made by the actual readers in forum votes. Additionally, given how this is essentially a story version of a Tabletop game there is also a background RPG system that while the characters aren't necessarily aware of, the readers can see these stats to know how each chosen 'Action' effects their character's development.
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